Friday, February 6, 2009

This short and fascinating video recipe for spicy tomato rice will hopefully add a very nice, all-purpose side dish to your repertoire. Believe it or not, Chefs have a much tougher time coming up with starchy side dishes for meals than they do with the main items. Is this an issue for you as well?

This is probably due to the fact that new recipes for main courses seem almost infinite. At last count there were 2,769,241 ways to cook a chicken. By the way, while I typed that last sentence, 793 new ways to cook chicken were just invented.

Side dishes are another story. I do about five or six variations on mashed potatoes and that's it. Seems you can only do so many things to make it interesting before you run out of ideas. Kind of like Survivor. So, don't underestimate the importance of adding a new side dish to your arsenal.

This Spanish rice-inspired spicy tomato rice recipe is super easy to make, and is always a crowd-pleaser. When was the last time you had Spanish rice? The last time you went to Spain? That time you went to that Mexican place for that thing with those guys? If you can't recall, then it's time to watch this video and get busy. Enjoy!

Seems a great sidedish although not very spanish really. Here in spain we rarely use jalapeños or chile chipotle(if not preparing latinamerican food). In fact I'm sure that we would use ñoras (a dry tipe of pepper)instead. However, looks tasty and will try to make it one day soon. :)

no typo. Don't forget about the moisture from the veggies. Also 1 cup rice uses 1 1/2 cup liquid, so this is inline. Also, as you cook more rice, you need less water. Almost all rice recipes call for too much liquid, and that's why people get glue.

this looks really good! i've only made rice once and it didnt turn out good at all..what i like about this recipe is that i almost have all the ingredients except for the chicken broth..on my way to wal-mart then cooking time is on! =]

Made this tonight. Goes really well with tri-tip or as part of a fajita burrito. I made three cups of rice and used 3 cups broth, 1/2 to 3/4 cup water, a full can of tomato sauce, and added some extra butter. I kept all other ingredients the same. My rice definitely had a redder look to it but it still came out excellent. I was curious when reading the recipe why such little liquid and then realized their is water in the tomato sauce and vegetables. The time measurements for cooking the rice were spot on.

Chef john,I am puerto rican so I grew up with "spanish" rice knowing how to cook it and what not...my grandmothers always taught me to wash your rice to rise out all the excess starch and to pic out all the little pebbles and black bits.

When you cook rice the water get absorbed into the rice and it is left with all the starch.It is not like pasta where the starchy cooking liquid gets drained.

What kind of chili powder? The blended kind used for chili? Whenever I see a recipe that calls for chili powder without specifying the kind,I shy away from it. I've made too many recipes that came out off-tasting because I used a blend when it should have been just a ground up whatever specific kind of chili (chile?), or vice-versa. Same thing with fresh chiles (chilis?). When something calls simply for "chile," what does that mean? Is there any consistency in the use of these terms in recipes?

Hi Chef John. I must say, I am a big fan of your videos. I tried making this dish and it was a hit at dinner time. However, there was a good amount of rice that burned and stuck to the bottom of the pot. The rice settled and it burned. Any advice? Or is it my pan's fault? LOL!

I made this tonight, YUM! I've tried about 6 of your recipes so far, they are ALL great. I'm giving some of the rice to my parents, I just know she's going to want to make it too, so easy!!I'm thinking I'll try your turkey cocktail meatballs with orange cranberry sauce next.

I made this tonight, YUM! I'm made about 6 of your recipes, they're all great! I'm giving some of the rice to my parents, just know my mom will want to make it too, so easy!I"m going to try your turkey cocktail meatballs next!